Sarasaland Adventure 2: The Alien Insurgency

Sarasaland Adventure 2 is one of the best SMBX games on this site. It's easily better than SRB 1, 2, and 3, and I'd say it makes a case for being as good as the Talking Time games. However, there are a few things that may hold it back, which I'll get to later.

First and foremost, the aesthetics are great. The first few levels are visually perfect, and some of the later levels - despite getting a little too challenging in some areas - have a nice aesthetic going for them. This entire game is beautiful - there's the right amount of background doodads, as well as plenty of custom graphics and palette swaps. Visually speaking, this is in the top 10 percent of SMBX games - easily.

There are also a ton of customized elements. Sound effects are either taken from other Mario games or are custom (which is a nice change of pace from the typical SMBX fare). The music tracks are all perfect; nothing was jarring or out of place, and nothing felt tired and cliched. Good job here.

The level design is also generally outstanding, if a bit bloated. Otabo is one of the best SMBX level designers. Levels are long but full of secrets, coins, and well-placed enemies. There are some exceptions; for instance, in 1-2, there are some homing koopas near the end that really shouldn't be there. Also, the size of the levels tends to go against the game at points. Levels are indeed very long - perhaps too long - which amplifies even the simplest mistake. This is an issue that has been pointed out time and time again in the Super RMN Bros series. I didn't find it that much of an issue, especially in the early levels, but I do recommend shortening the levels.

This brings me to my next point: bonus stars. I like the amount of secrets in this game, but 3 stars per level may be a little too much, especially when you require almost all of them to progress. That's probably the only major design flaw in this game: you shouldn't have to collect all of the secrets to progress in the story.

These issues are amplified by the fact that you use Peach/Daisy. She has some awesome moves, such as hovering and holding on to fireballs, but she also cannot spin jump or hold an extra powerup. This makes longer levels quite tricky, especially if you want to reserve that feather from earlier after you accidentally pick up a fire flower.

Nevertheless, these design points are mostly a matter of taste, especially if you are a veteran Mario player. Advanced users will love the amount of content and the slow pace of many of the levels. Newer users will get frustrated. I personally like to strike a balance between length and challenge. I would probably reduce the length of each level by 2-3 screens and reduce the number of sprites (stars) from 3 to 2. I would put a star/sprite quota on only the final level of each world, and the quota would require players to find maybe an average of one bonus star/sprite per level, instead of virtually all of them. This way, if a player really dislikes a level, they won't be forced to explore it to the bitter end. Keeping some stuff optional is key to a balanced experience.

The story also throws a few wrinkles at us. The extraterrestrial premise is described well by the first few NPCs, and it will be interesting to see what direction the story goes in future worlds!

On the whole, I really enjoyed what I was able to play of this game. I'll keep it on my radar, and I highly recommend that everyone check it out! Even if you're not a fan of exploration (and I mentioned how I think it can be balanced out above), you may still enjoy this game.